Ron Borges Death Watch - VI

This is more like it:

The Boston Herald has suspended columnist Ron Borges after he was catfished by a person claiming to be Tom Brady’s agent, the paper announced Friday afternoon.

Borges, a sportswriter for the Herald, reported on Thursday night that Brady would not report to OTAs if he didn't receive a raise comparable to the one the 49ers gave his former backup, Jimmy Garoppolo. The story also ran as the back page of the Herald’s Friday sports section. The report, which cited several unnamed "sources," was apparently the result of a text conversation Borges had with a man pretending to be Brady's agent, Don Yee.

I had to duck out early this morning, so I didn't have the time to double check the now obvious 'suspend the story' nonsense the Herald put out.

Ron Borges Death Watch - V

This is not a complete list, and I'm not going to include the links to their Twitter feeds (it's so much work!), but I wanted to note which sports writers, bloggers and others who have tweeted or retweeted about this and who hasn't:

Yes - Pro Football Talk, Bruce Allen, Kirk Minihane, Kevin Youkilis, Scott Zolak, Jerry Thornton, Gerry Callahan, NESN Patriots.

No - Fitzy, Shank, John Tomase, Kevin Paul DuPont.

Make of it as you will.

Ron Borges Death Watch - IV

Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub just gave me the skinny - Ron Borges has been suspended:

A column by Ron Borges in today’s Herald regarding Patriot Tom Brady’s salary discussions was based on information which proved to be false.

The Herald apologizes to Brady, his agent Don Yee and the Patriots, and to our readers for this erroneous report.

Borges’ column has been suspended pending further review.

Note what they're not saying now that they were saying earlier in the day relating to the 'other sources', or are they now implicitly confirming it was all bullshit? Seems to indicate they didn't pan out, right? How long does it really take for Borges to tell his editors who the 'other sources' are and for those editors to contact these 'other sources' and verify what they allegedly told Borges? If you ask me this could have been conducted by now, so why the delaying tactic? What can't be conducted at the same breakneck speed is Borges' severance package. Given the Herald's pending bankruptcy proceedings, the size of that severance package is about the same size of that big change jar some us keep in the old one gallon twist-off glass container of cheap Gallo wine.

UPDATE, 2/10/18, 10:35 AM - Correction - the column has been suspended, not Borges. Does that mean I just pulled a Borges?

Ron Borges Death Watch - III

Clearing the deck before the next big announcement:

Boston Herald sports editor tells PFT they're looking into Ron Borges' explosive Tom Brady column, which was apparently based on Borges getting pranked https://t.co/I2JFzZ1AL0

— ProFootballTalk(@ProFootballTalk) February 9, 2018

If you've written about football long enough, you've probably caught Ron Borges copying and pasting your work without credit. I know I have. He's a lazy and sloppy journalist. It's not surprising this happened. https://t.co/zQRXEHUcg3

— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) February 9, 2018

Ron Borges Death Watch - II

I'm sure my co-blogger Mike will grant me this exemption from Shank bashing. I wonder what the mindset is behind people like Ron Borges who have the chutzpah to write crap like this before they get their pants pulled down in front of the entire country:

On the same day Ron Borges was writing a column based on one bogus source he didn't verify, he was lecturing people to "do your homework." pic.twitter.com/WXqNFzdTPI

— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) February 9, 2018

Ron Borges Death Watch

So, when does he get the ax? Is he hitting the Jack Daniels bottle as we speak?

And Now For Some Ron Borges Bashing - II / La Fin

From the looks of it, we may not have Ron Borges to kick around anymore (some emphasis added):

It’s been a rough morning for Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges.

Borges believed he had a major scoop in today’s paper: A column citing unnamed “sources” close to Tom Brady saying that Brady was ready to hold out of offseason work if the Patriots didn’t give him a significant pay raise, comparable to the contract the 49ers just gave Brady’s former backup Jimmy Garoppolo. But then WEEI revealed that one of its listeners had hoaxed Borges with a text purporting to be from Brady’s agent, and that the whole premise of Borges’ column was bogus.

PFT checked with the Boston Herald‘s sports editor, Sean Leahy, who told us, “We’re looking into it.”

Meanwhile, the Boston Herald has pulled Borges’ column off its website, which strongly suggests that they’ve already concluded that “looking into it” is something that Borges failed to do when he got the text.

Borges cited “sources,” plural, in his column saying that Brady would hold out, but it appears that Borges was relying on only one source, and that one source was a prankster who fooled him. Borges has a history of poor journalistic practices, including an instance of plagiarism that precipitated his departure from the Boston Globe. We’ve caught Borges copying and pasting from PFT without credit in the past. Now he has egg on his face again.

If it was a single source, he's as good as fired or otherwise made redundant, since the Herald's bankruptcy auction happens on Tuesday, with three potential bidders so far. His previous history does not help him, and a little Globe birdy told me back when it happened - when Borges was shown the door at the Globe, 'he didn't burn that bridge - he NUKED it'.

UPDATE AT 4:15 PM - I forgot to note that Shank's Twitter feed contains no tweets or retweets as of this update. Fellow Boston sports assholes need to stick together, you know!

And Now For Some Ron Borges Bashing

(Another of the occasional departures from Shank and Boston Globe bashing)

Readers of the Dan Shaughnessy Watch are fairly versed in Shank's flat-out hatred of the New England Patriots shortly after Robert Kraft purchased the team over two decades ago. We sometimes forget about another redoubtable Patriots troll. Of course I'm speaking about former Boston Globe plagiarist, the current Boston Herald columnist Ron Borges.

FOXBORO — The recent trailer for the upcoming Facebook documentary on Tom Brady’s fight with Father Time seemed a bit, shall we say, eerie. In fact, if the words coming out of his mouth had been uttered by Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees, New England football fans would be chortling that both had lost their minds.

But in this part of the football world Tom Brady can do no wrong, at least not until he does. Then the whispers begin that the “Tom vs. Time” battle that is the subject of this six-part documentary on Facebook is being lost. This usually comes on the few weekends when the Patriots also lose. When they win, 40 is the new 30 and TB12 is as invincible as the Terminator. Still, to hear him sounding like a Cherokee or a Chickasaw coming out of a sweat lodge was a little unsettling.

First - anyone who reads Borges side-by-side with a Shank column will realize Borges' knowledge of football is vastly superior to Shank's, and even that might be an understatement. That said, both share the common trolling technique of praising the Patriots to some degree while ripping them and certain members of the team (read - Tom Brady) when it suits them. I'm fine with Borges mentioning Tom's past five games being less than his stellar self but the tone of his column, taken as a whole, seems to be somewhere between piling on and a rip job.

Newer readers may not be familiar with the dynamic with Borges and the Patriots - It's all but certain that while Borges was writing at the Globe in the 20th century, his primary source for juicy Patriots locker room gossip and other inside information was Drew Bledsoe. Borges hatred of the Patriots started at some point between Brady taking over for Bledsoe after the infamous Mo Lewis hit on Bledsoe and his subsequent trade to the Buffalo Bills. You could say Borges and Shaughnessy share quite a bit in common.

A Borges digression - the Globe shitcanned his ass a little over a decade ago. Once he landed on his feet at the Herald a short time later, a little Globe birdy told me that Borges was seething for revenge against the Globe for axing him, vowing 'I'm gonna fucking bury them'. To the best of my knowledge, Borges never filed a lawsuit against the Globe. So much for that bravado.

I Felt The Same Way

Do you remember this column, faithful readers? I watched tonight's episode of Comcast Sports Net's 'The Early Show', hosted by Gary Tanguay, and I had a painful reminder of what an obnoxious, stubborn, obtuse asshole Glenn Ordway has become since his days with Johnny Most doing Celtics games. I simply could not bear to listen to this fucking carnival barker on WEEI's 'The Big Show' because Ordway has an overly loud mouth, to the point I found it borderline unprofessional, even for sports talk shows. I used to tune into that miserable excuse for sports commentary when Ordway would simply START FUCKING SCREAMING OVER HIS CALLERS - YEEEEARGH! within a minute or two of myself tuning in, just to win the argument over said caller. I'd rather do acupuncture to myself with rusty nails.

Apparently, this old dog cannot learn new tricks:

@Dan_Shaughnessy literally looks like he is being tortured sitting next 2 @GlennDOrdway on @CSNNE. Wheres the checkbook Dan? #ImContributing

— Kevin M Flanagan (@KevinMFlanagan) October 7, 2015

I just happened to tune in tonight when this was happening, and I had a baaad flashback. Right on fucking cue, Ordway starts raising his voice multiple times when Tanguay was saying something, and the tweeter Kevin Flanagan was dead on with this comment, as Shank was pretty uncomfortable during those segments when he was on with Ordway. Hope the check clears, Shank!

I mention 'obtuse' for this reason - Tanguay brought up the upcoming Patriots / Cowboys game, and he asked (paraphrasing) - 'Is this game a measure of revenge for Robert Kraft on Jerry Jones, given that Jones would not help out Kraft during Deflategate?' Multiple times, Ordway starts looking at and waving his notes and saying / rephrasing - 'I don't see Kraft on the roster - is he playing at linebacker / corner? Is he in the lineup?'. Even with Shank chiming in and backing up Tanguay's notion, Ordway kept at it, not budging an inch, completely ignoring or missing the point they both were making and waving around his notes like that should end the argument in his favor. I think Ordway's just a complete piece of shit at this point in his career.

It got even more uncomfortable a few hours later on that channel when I flipped back to Felger's Comcast Sports Net show. Ron Borges got on Marc 'Beetle' Bertrand because Beetle criticized Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for not getting back to winning playoff football over the past decade or show, at one point calling Beetle an idiot. Of course, Felger's laughing the whole time, and he didn't even have to instigate that fight. I was hoping for Beetle to knock Borges on his ass and do a bellyflop on him and break a few of his ribs, but I'll just have to tune in later and see if the steel cage match between them becomes reality.

Seriously, what a complete shitshow tonight was on local sports programming...

Quiz Time II!

An old high school buddy sent me this Ron Borges prediction about drafting Richard Seymour. He says, "Thought you'd get a laugh out of this." I did, in a small way, but he actually set me off, because I remember Ron Borges writing a July 2002 column claiming that Lance Armstrong wasn't an athlete. I dismantled that article in someone's blog comments section, now deleted, unfortunately. It was that article that got me into blogging. That, and my love of the Boston Globe!

As I'm sending links back to my high school buddy (with an expletive-filled e-mail), I run across Borges' Wikipedia page, I see this gem from Shank:

“We should have one of those Globe polls—‘Who do you hate more?’ I’ve challenged Borges to see who could get out the vote. It would be close. And it would be a lot more interesting than who’s going to win the MVP.” -Dan Shaughnessy

So my question to you is - who do you hate more?

* Dan Shaughnessy;
* Ron Borges, or;
* The Boston Globe?